A modern video intercom access control system has been installed at Facility No. 5 in the city of Stegnogorsk, where Kuandyk Bishimbayev is serving his sentence, and funds have been allocated from the local budget to strengthen the material and technical base of the city's penal correction system institutions. The press service of the Prosecutor General's Office reported this on its Telegram channel, according to infohub.kz.
According to the report, this year the Stegnogorsk city prosecutor's office resolved the issue of allocating funds from the local budget to strengthen the material and technical base of the city's penal correction system institutions.
At Facility No. 5, where Kuandyk Bishimbayev is serving his sentence, as previously reported, the supervisory authority has installed a modern video intercom access control system. When an inmate needs to leave, they press a call button, after which a duty officer identifies them via video link and clarifies the purpose of the exit. Only after confirmation does the door open, and it closes automatically after passage.
"The system makes it possible to eliminate uncontrolled movement of inmates, strengthen the access control regime and raise the level of safety for staff and the facility as a whole," the agency said.
Earlier, information about Bishimbayev's absence from the prison was published and circulated by one of the YouTube channels. At the time, the Committee of the Penal Correction System commented on the situation, saying that the convicted man was serving his sentence in a maximum-security facility. Later, Kuandyk Bishimbayev's lawyer told NUR.KZ where his client was currently located and about the conditions of his detention in the prison. Also, on the sidelines of the Senate, deputy Marat Kozhayev, who previously served as deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was asked why they do not show how and where convicted Kuandyk Bishimbayev is serving his sentence, to which Kozhayev replied that official officials should be trusted, and the convicted man is being held in a maximum-security prison in the city of Stegnogorsk.
On November 9, 2023, Saltanat Nukenova, the civil wife of former Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kuandyk Bishimbayev, died in one of Astana's restaurants as a result of bodily injuries. On November 12, Bishimbayev was arrested for two months. The director of the Gastrocenter, the establishment where Nukenova died, Bakytzhan Baizhanov, was also taken into custody.
The investigation into the case was completed in early January. The trial of former minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev and his brother Bakytzhan Baizhanov began on March 27. The proceedings were held in open session, and anyone could watch the online broadcast on the YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Both were tried by a jury of 12 people.
In mid-May, Kuandyk Bishimbayev was sentenced to 24 years in prison to be served in a maximum-security penal correction system facility for the murder of Saltanat Nukenova and her torture. On May 28, an appeal was filed in the case of Kuandyk Bishimbayev. On June 11, the appeal in the case of Bishimbayev and Baizhanov was received by the Astana court. On June 26, the Astana court announced the decision made by the judicial panel on the appeal of Kuandyk Bishimbayev and Bakytzhan Baizhanov. The sentence for both convicted men was left unchanged.